BIRMINGHAM, Alabama - A 38-year-old man has been charged with murder in the death of a woman found stuffed in a plastic storage box near a Southside dumpster.

Charles Jordan is being held in the Jefferson County Jail with bond set at $60,000. Birmingham police said both Jordan and the victim, 61-year-old Patricia McCain, were acquaintances that engaged in heavy drug usage.

Jordan had been staying recently at Chateau Terrace Condominiums at 1540 15th Street South. He was renting a unit from his cousin. Investigators said McCain was killed inside that top-floor unit and kept in the storage tub for weeks before her body was discovered outside near a dumpster on Sunday. They have not yet said how she died.

The discovery was made about 11:50 a.m. Sunday in a parking lot next to the alley behind the condominium complex. Birmingham homicide Capt. Scott Praytor told AL.com McCain, of Morris, was killed after an altercation with Jordan while they were in bed.

The killing happened sometime in March. She and Jordan were in bed together. When they awoke, an altercation happened and McCain died. At that point, Praytor said, the man made the decision to hide the body. "He did that by placing her in a tub and left the tub in the apartment for a while,'' Praytor said.

As Jordan was preparing to leave town for work with his job at a Pelham construction company, he asked his cousin to dispose of the storage box. "The person was going to do it,'' Praytor said. "The box seemed heavy and he looked inside and that's when the body was discovered."

A neighbor, who didn't want his name used, said he was outside when the body was discovered. The man who took the storage box outside looked in it as he was near the dumpster. That's when he went and got another neighbor for confirmation that what he was seeing was a body.

The neighborhood said authorities never removed the body from the plastic tub.

Police were then called to the scene. "We don't know why the box was kept in the apartment and not disposed of sooner,'' Praytor said.

Police spokesman Lt. Sean Edwards said South Precinct officers were dispatched to the location around 11:50 a.m. The decomposing body was taken to the Jefferson County Coroner's Office where they identified her through fingerprints. She had an extensive history of bad check charges, which is why her fingerprints were on file.

Jordan was taken into custody out of town. He has, authorities said, admitted to his role in McCain's death. The investigation is ongoing.

McCain is the city's 10th homicide victim in 2014.

Residents at the condominium complex said they all know each other and are frightened and disturbed by what is reported to have happened in one of the upstairs units. They declined to comment on the record, but said no one ever expects anything like this to happen in their back yard.